North Texas Daily

Matt Brune | Staff Writer

With 5:06 left in the fourth quarter, sophomore guard Terriell Bradley drained a 3-pointer to bring the Mean Green within two, 45-43. The final five minutes of the game, however, turned drastically in favor of Old Dominion University.

The Monarchs outscored the Mean Green 17-4, sealing the third straight North Texas defeat with a final score of 62-47.

In their second worst offensive outing of the season, the Mean Green (6-14, 3-6) shot 26 percent from the field and put up a season-low 19 points in the first half against Old Dominion (10-10, 5-4).

The trio of senior guard Candice Adams, senior forward Terra Ellison, and Bradley combined to shoot just 21 percent (8-for-38) Saturday night, 20 percent less than what they average together this season.

“We lost [the game] offensively,” head coach Jalie Mitchell said. “[We had] Terriell, Terra, and even Candice missing some shots uncharacteristically. We count on the three of them heavily for our scoring and they did not find the bottom of the hoop today.”

North Texas hung around in the game for three and a half quarters because of their ability to keep Jennie Simms (25.3 points per game) under wraps for the majority of the game.

Simms finished with 14 points on 3-of-13 shooting.

Shutting Simms down was a team effort as senior guard Kelsey Criner, her primary defender against the Monarchs earlier in the season, managed just three minutes of play.

“We just always had someone in her face and on her, not letting her free,” freshman forward Madi Townley said. ‘’And every chance she went open, someone was there to jump out [on her].”

Townley had the best performance of any player for the Mean Green, finishing with four points and 13 rebounds, seven of which were offensive that gave the team second-chance opportunities.

The issue in trying to defend Simms was foul trouble. The Mean Green fouled 25 times and allowed the Lady Monarchs to shoot 47 percent in the game.

“I think some of [the fouls] were silly,” Mitchell said. “Especially our post [defense], I think we have to be a lot smarter. Obviously, we had two [players] foul out and I just don’t think we were positioning ourselves properly to stay out of foul trouble.”

The loss dropped the Mean Green to second to last in the conference and ramped up the pressure as they enter the final stretch of the season.

Mitchell believes that the game was a rarity as her scoring trio simply had an off night. Either way, the team cannot afford many more nights like this over the next month and a half.

“I think about the shots Terra missed, some of the shots Terriell [and] Candice missed, these are shots they hit on a regular basis,” Mitchell said. “It’s tough for us to find scoring if those three aren’t hitting.”

Next up: North Texas women’s basketball faces Rice on the road Saturday at 2 p.m.